A tribute to and catalogue of the works of Alexander "Hugin" Wieser, founder of ambient black metal band Uruk Hai and many other side-projects, including Hrossharsgrani, Hrefnesholt, Elisabetha, B-Machina, Ceremony of Innocence and more!
Here you will find my thoughts on his work and details on the releases as drawn from items in my personal collection, forming a fuller catalogue of his work than is currently available elsewhere online

Saturday, 19 March 2011

DER ROTE GLANZ DER FLAMMENFEE - update

It's always fun to feature one of Hugin's lesser known projects on the pages of Honour and Darkness, and although music doesn't form part of the equation in this offering it's an interesting little update to the last full Ceremony of Innocence album, released in 2008.

Indeed, it was all the way back on 24 June 2009 that Honour and Darkness first covered "Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee", and with little in the way of C.O.I. material coming through in the intervening years this opportunity is something of a blessing to keep the band in public view.

You may recall in the original 2009 post that a Kulturterrorimus online review was cited, which read:

"should [your taste] be rooted in Ambient, Trip Hop, Chill Out, Drum And Bass, (future) trance and Goa, must this multi-layered gem is unconditionally excellent. Others who love avant-garde Neoklassik or ritual and/or occult Industrial should risk also giving it a listen"

and that Nazgul concluded that "It's simply a great CD to chill out with! It forms the first part of a four-album concept based around the elements - Fire, Water, Air and Earth - hence the coloured disc and the 'fire' themed tracks running throughout the album."

The artwork shown in this post (above) was presumably for a planned - but unreleased - CDr version of the release, which has two tracks listed: 'Feuer' and 'Zeit & Raum'. The latter track did appear on the Beverina & WAR (B&W) version of the CD as both an album track and as bonus video content. The track 'Feuer' is not listed on the final release, although there are Part I and II versions of a song called 'Feuertraum' that may be the derivation for this alternate version.

Fire, or 'feuer', is the theme of this release of course, so it's not impossible that there was another track (or version of an existing song) going by this title at the time. Until (or if) a disc to accompany the artwork comes to light, however, this is a matter for pure conjecture at this time.

The image on the rear panel of the illustration shows Hugin in tub-thumping mode, and is the same picture - albeit it in colour not monochrome - that appears on the inside rear tray insert on the B&W pressing.

The artwork was designed by Hugin himself, and to Nazgul's eyes is rather more spectacular than the artwork on the full album release. A shame therefore that this particular release never saw the light of day. Unless, of course, Hugin could be persuaded to release a limited run for the die-hards out there!

Mind you, it's a privilege to have seen this at all, as it was totally unknown to me until Alexander at AMF Productions unearthed it from his archive.

Until the next full Ceremony of Innocence release comes our way, these little nuggets will have to suffice!